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UVa’s Jameel Sewell threw a late TD pass in the loss. |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – What a difference a week makes. Only seven days after shutting out Duke and limiting the Blue Devils to 100 total offensive yards, Virginia’s defense surrendered 304 yards in the first half and 432 over the course of the entire game as East Carolina pillaged the Cavaliers 31-21 at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday evening.
“They out-kicked us, out-coached us, out-caught us, out-defended us and out-ran us so we got the result that we got,” Virginia head coach Al Groh said. “It was pretty hardball stuff. There wasn’t a lot of trick, slick stuff. They were very physical, ran the ball with authority and it just took us too long to get started on defense.”
Even without all hands on deck – the Pirates were missing their top receiver Aundrae Allison (ankle) and top tailback Chris Johnson (foot) – East Carolina was able to move the ball at ease both on the ground (208 yards) and through the air (224 yards).
Senior tailback Brandon Fractious led the Pirates with 102 rushing yards and one TD. He was complemented by sophomore tailback Brandon Simmons who posted 57 yards and a touchdown run. East Carolina quarterback James Pinkney also scrambled for 42 yards and a TD.
“I give a lot of credit to their offensive line and their running backs, junior defensive end Chris Long said. “They really exploited our mistakes and their quarterback made some plays too.”
Pinkney was also a threat through the air, as he completed 17 of 30 passes for 244 yards. Senior Bobby Good led East Carolina’s receivers with five catches for 102 yards.
“For really the first time this year, the defense was struggling,” Groh said.
One key sequence cited by Groh occurred just minutes before halftime. Pinkney connected with Good on a short pass and Good avoided a tackle before springing for 44 yards down the sideline that set the Pirates up with a first-and-goal situation on Virginia’s six-yard line. Two plays later, Pinkney, after bobbling the snap in the air, scrambled five yards for a touchdown that gave East Carolina a commanding 24-7 lead with 1:46 remaining before halftime.
“You can’t erase those things,” Groh said. “We had a chance to make a tackle on the sideline and we didn’t make it. We had a chance to get the quarterback down when the ball went over his head. We had a chance to make those plays and we didn’t make any plays. That was a critical point.”
The defensive unit, which came into the evening ranked No. 20 nationally, gave up the most yards that it has all season. Pittsburgh posted 390 yards against Virginia in the season opener.
“We just came out and didn’t execute like we needed to,” Long said. “They just made more plays than us.”
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Fontel Mines caught a nine-yard touchdown pass in the closing moments. |
The offense did not fare much better than the defense. Sewell completed 15 of 31 passes for 123 yards and a late nine-yard TD pass to Fontel Mines .
It was the passes that Sewell didn’t complete, however, that haunted the Cavaliers. On several critical occasions, Virginia receivers dropped passes that could have dramatically altered the dynamics of the game.
“We caught the passes that were there to be caught,” Groh said. “We didn’t really come up with any balls where the receiver helped the quarterback out.”
Early in the fourth quarter, junior wide receiver Emmanuel Byers dropped a pass across the middle that could easily have ended in a score that would have put Virginia within three points of the Pirates.
“I just ran across the middle and had one-on-one coverage, man-to-man and I just didn’t concentrate on the ball enough,” Byers said. “I could have scored.”
There were a few bright spots for the Cavaliers. Virginia notched its third punt block of the season early in the second half when junior Ben Parziale broke through the East Carolina line and batted down Ryan Dougherty’s punt.
“It wasn’t really designed for me,” Parziale said of the punt block play. “It was kind of like a blur. Nobody came and touched me. It should be easy to block a punt when nobody comes to block you.”
Senior tailback Jason Snelling also had his best performance of the year, totaling 103 yards and one TD.
“Its been positive that we’ve been able to execute the running game the past two weeks but a win would help this team better so the loss takes away from it a little bit,” he said.
The third quarter also saw Virginia’s defense buckle down, at least temporarily. The Cavaliers limited East Carolina to 63 total yards in the quarter.
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Virginia’s Maurice Covington runs with the football. |
“We were just trying to get some momentum going and we did for a little bit,” Long said. “But we couldn’t hold it and that falls squarely on us.”
Perhaps the most brilliant highlight of the evening for Virginia was Byers’ 22-yard touchdown pass to senior Deyon Williams toward the end of the first quarter. This was the second-straight week that Byers notched a TD pass and it was the third of his career. Those three TD passes tie Byers with Sewell for most career TD passes on the team.
Even though Groh said during the week that he does not use the same trick play frequently because trick plays “have short shelf lives,” Byers was not caught off guard by the call.
“We weren’t surprised by the call,” he said. “That was good play-calling by Coach,” Byers said.
In his second game back from injury, Williams hauled in three catches for 38 yards.
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